Sierra College vocational ed programs may survive, but barely

RANDY PENCH rpench@sacbee.com Automotive student Omar Taraki uses a pressure washer in a vocational education class last month at Sierra College. Trustees will vote tonight on major budget cuts, including vocational education staff jobs.

Three Sierra College vocational programs slated for closure last month could remain open for at least another year if trustees vote tonight to rescind some layoff notices.

The college will spend the next several months reviewing the agriculture, automotive and construction programs to determine whether to eliminate or revive them, said President Leo Chavez. For now, he said, "We're going to keep all three in a greatly reduced form."

Chavez is asking trustees to rescind layoff notices for seven of the 35 people who received them last month. That would keep full-time faculty teaching the agriculture, automotive and construction classes. But course offerings would be reduced because the college still plans to get rid of part-time instructors and support staff for those departments.

"The bottom line is the student is going to lose 40 percent of the classes, because I need staffing to support the laboratories," said Alex Wong, an automotive teacher whose job could be saved tonight by the board.

"I'm glad that the program survived, but I feel very badly for the student who is getting stuck in the system and not going to graduate on time."

Sierra College had considered eliminating the programs as part of a larger plan to close an $11.2 million deficit for the coming year. Keeping the seven faculty members employed will cost the college roughly $500,000, Chavez said, which will likely come out of reserves.

Sierra College officials will review the programs over the next several months and ask the board to vote on their fate again – possibly in November.

One possible outcome, Chavez said, is that some vocational programs could become privatized. Students would pay the entire cost of the course instead of the standard $26 per unit.

"It may be that the class is not going to go away but that we'll offer it in a different form," Chavez said.

Sierra, like many community colleges, already offers so-called "community education" courses, which do not get any state funds because they charge fees that cover the cost of teaching and administering them. Motorcycle, cooking and photography classes are taught through that model at Sierra College.

But there is no guarantee that the programs will last past next year, Chavez said. He said the college may end up cutting several more programs, depending on the state budget.

"Do you take declining resources and spread them over the same number of programs? (Or) on the other hand … what programs do you eliminate in order to keep the other programs strong and vital?" Chavez said.

"Our budget situation has gotten us to the point where that question is rising to the forefront. We can't expect to keep taking money out of our operation and expect everything to stay the same."

Port-au-Prince appeared as heaps of rubble growing ever distant as the plane carrying Dr. Hernando Garzon flew home from Haiti.

"It's hard to appreciate the devastation without a bird's-eye view," said Garzon, an emergency room doctor at Kaiser's Sacramento Medical Center who led a team from Relief International during two recent trips to the country.

He was one of dozens of capital area doctors and nurses who descended on Haiti in the days and weeks following the massive Jan. 12 earthquake.

"I felt I left too early. There is still so much work to do," Garzon said.

With the rainy season approaching, there is heightened concern that Haiti's people will be ravaged anew – this time by infectious diseases, malaria and other mosquito-borne ailments. Mudslides could add to the misery, making it more difficult for doctors to treat the injured and producing unsanitary conditions that could cause wounds to become infected.

"We're all worried that there's a second wave of suffering that is coming, with so many people living out there in tents, in rainy conditions. There's the increased possibility of disease," said David Harbin, who is coordinating the Haiti response for Relief International.

Other calamities, such as Monday's quake in Turkey and the recent quake in Chile, could divert global attention from Haiti at the worst time, Harbin said.

"The level of suffering in Haiti is magnitudes greater – just by sheer numbers of people who died," he said. "Haiti will continue to need our help for some time."

Haiti's government estimates 200,000 people were killed by the 7.0 earthquake and a half-million survivors left homeless and threatened by disease in the teeming tent cities that have risen amid tons of rubble.

Already, there have been at least 11 reported cases of malaria, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which dispatched a team of nearly 400 staffers to aid and monitor relief efforts. Other communicable diseases, such as typhoid and dysentery, have afflicted segments of the population.

Scores of doctors and nurses from the across the United States – it's unclear how many – have flown to Haiti to lend their expertise.

Dr. George Lian, an orthopedic surgeon aligned with Sutter Health and Mercy's Sacramento hospitals, spent a week in Haiti, returning home to the capital on Saturday – on the same day that one of his colleagues, another orthopedic surgeon, flew to Haiti.

"The big problem right now is with infections," said Lian. Downpours are already adding to the challenges. "When it rains, it's awful hard for people to get to your facility," which he described as makeshift clinics housed in tents.

"Just trying to keep things clean is much more difficult with mud everywhere," Lian said.

"When I arrived, it was a little disorienting," he said. "Initially, I didn't quite understand the depth of it. … The devastation is amazing, just how many buildings had collapsed and the thousands of people who now end up sleeping outside at night."

The global community has poured more than $2 billion into Haiti for relief efforts, but the needs are still great.

Even before the quake, the country was among the world's poorest. Concerned with the lack of access to health care, Doctors Without Borders already had thousands of volunteers in Haiti when the quake hit.

"The Haitian health care system was already weak prior to the earthquake, and it is not in a position to provide the required care," Christopher Stokes, the group's general director in Brussels, said in an interview posted on the organization's Web site.

Doctors Without Borders has more than 3,000 personnel in the country and has treated more than 40,000 people since the quake, according to the medical relief organization. It has distributed about 7,000 tents.

Much of the country's health care infrastructure was demolished when the temblor struck. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, and most hospitals in the capital of Port-au-Prince were rendered nonfunctional.

Garzon, the Kaiser emergency room doctor, made two trips to the country. His first, just days after the quake, lasted 12 days. On his second trip, which lasted 17 days, he took his 18-year-old daughter along.

As he flew away from the city on Feb. 16, the magnitude of the job ahead was readily apparent.

"None of the cleanup and rebuilding seems to have begun," he said.

On a blog hosted by Kaiser Permanente, he could only marvel, he said, "at how quickly I adapted to the utter chaos and destruction around me."

Garzon gazed out the airplane window at the collapsed neighborhoods that were now the color of dust and earth. "I could identify the streets that I had been through."

Up close, the sorrow and misery were more evident. Garzon spoke of a 15-year-old girl whose arm was amputated to free her from the rubble of her collapsed school.

Children have been particularly traumatized.

"There's a lot of psychological trauma. The kids were very, very traumatized, and that hasn't been addressed," said Dr. Douglas Gross, a UC Davis pediatrician who embarked on a two-week stint for Haiti on Jan. 22.

"I've struggled significantly since I've been back with the degree of the devastation and thinking about what the future holds for the Haitian people," Gross said.

"My concern is that this is going to fade from people's memories," he said, "even though the aftermath is going to be here for a long, long time."

Ladies – it might be time to stop worrying that the Wednesday night glass of wine is just empty calories.

A new study tracking 20,000 American women through middle age found those who had two or more drinks a day gained less weight than their non-drinking counterparts.

The study is published in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston asked normal-weight women 39 years and older to report their weight and drinking habits. Normal weight for women is defined as a body mass index between 18.5 and 25.

Through the nearly 13 years of follow-up, the women steadily gained weight.

However, women who drank more than 30 grams of alcohol a day – about 2 normal-sized drinks – gained the least weight. They gained on average 3.4 pounds, with the amount of weight gained increasing with decreased alcohol consumption. The non-drinkers gained an average of 8 pounds.

When looking at the risk of becoming obese, any woman who imbibed 15 or more grams of alcohol a day – or 1 or more drinks – would be at lowest risk.

Not all alcohol is equally kind to the waistline. While drinking any kind of alcohol decreased the risk of becoming obese, red wine drinkers were least likely to become obese. Beer and liquor came in second, with white wine having the weakest correlation with declining obesity risk.

The findings oppose the conventional wisdom that alcohol is misspent calories.

"I'm really puzzled by the findings," said UC Davis nutrition professor Judith Stern. "I would think that when people drink something at a cocktail party, their inhibitions are lowered and they get the munchies and eat more."

The study's authors think it's because women might forgo dessert if they have the extra glass of chardonnay.

Additionally, "other studies have shown alcohol consumption in women can induce increased energy expenditure," said author Lu Wang, an epidemiologist with the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

It's not likely men exhibit the same self-control. Wang cited past studies showing men who drank tended to put on pounds.

Physique aside, research on alcohol and its health implications is mixed.

Experts agree that moderate drinking may reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes, said Valentina Medici, a gastroenterologist at UC Davis Medical Center.

But she said heavy drinking damages the liver and increases risks of certain cancers.

Furthermore, it's more dangerous for a woman to drink heavily.

"High amounts of alcohol are more toxic for women than men," she said. "Women can get sicker and their liver can be more affected at a younger age."

Want to know who has been funding Roger Dickinson's campaign for state Assembly? No problem. Check out the secretary of state's Web site and scroll through his list of donors. You can even sort by ZIP code or occupation.

Want to know who funded Dickinson's campaigns for Sacramento County supervisor?

Good luck.

In Sacramento County it is virtually impossible for the average voter to research who is backing countywide candidates and officeholders.

"Voters need to know who is bankrolling the campaigns of the candidates they're going to be voting for. They definitely should have this sort of information online," said Trent Lange, president of the California Clean Money Campaign and chair of the group pushing Proposition 15, which would provide public financing for campaigns largely using fees charged to lobbyists.

The county's Voter Registration and Elections Department has requested updating to an electronic campaign disclosure filing system every year since fiscal 2004-05, said Brad Buyse, a department spokesman.

Given funding levels approved by the Board of Supervisors, however, the department has never been able to afford the system, said Jill LaVine, Registrar of Voters.

"Our wish list is always longer than the money list," LaVine said. "It's a choice we have to make within our budget."

Chances are good electronic campaign disclosure filing won't make it into next fiscal year's budget either. The county is facing a $118 million general fund shortfall in the fiscal year starting July 1.

Besides the state, some other counties and cities throughout California have made campaign contribution information available online.

For example, the city of Sacramento has upgraded to an electronic filing system. The Bee was recently able to analyze city contribution data and show how more than a third of campaign contributions to City Council races in 2009 came from outside the candidates' districts.

Reporters were able to do that by downloading the contribution information for each candidate into a spreadsheet.

The only way to get contribution information for supervisors, sheriff candidates or other countywide races is to head to the elections office at 7000 65th St., pull up individual disclosure forms on a public terminal and print the forms at a cost of 10 cents a page.

Last summer The Bee was able to get a CD with electronic copies of the forms – which county workers scan into a computer – for each supervisor for the past five years. The Bee then ran the electronic image of the forms through a special program to convert the image to text.

However, the quality of the scans was so bad – with some forms typewritten and other scanned in slightly crooked – that the result was virtually unusable.

So while it's apparent the supervisors have raked in substantial amounts of money from large developers – many of whom stand to gain from land use decisions before the board – analyzing the data is cumbersome at best.

Supervisors can raise considerable amounts of money during election years. Roger Dickinson raised close to $102,000 in 2006; Roberta MacGlashan raised about $125,000 in 2008; Susan Peters took in $163,000 in 2008; Don Nottoli raised $25,000 in 2006; and Jimmie Yee raised almost $294,000 in 2006.

It would cost the county $50,000 to install the same system as the one the city currently uses, Buyse said. The annual maintenance cost would be about $7,500.

Over time the system would save money, he added. Currently, county workers need to spend time date stamping the forms when they come in, removing staples from the returned forms, scanning the documents and entering them into the in-house database. County workers spent about 388 hours on such tasks in 2008 at a cost of about $23,500, according to an analysis Buyse prepared as part of an annual funding request.

MacGlashan said she didn't realize the department had hoped to fund such an upgrade every year. Supervisors don't get that level of detail during budget deliberations.

"We just see the recommended budget that comes to us," she said.

MacGlashan added that she'd support such a system in better budget times.

"I think it would be a very good service to provide for our constituents," she said.

Dickinson said an electronic system makes sense.

"It wouldn't bother me if it was available electronically," Dickinson said. "My guess is there just hasn't been a great clamoring in the past of people saying, 'Why can't I get this online?' Disclosure is a good thing."

Hefty water and sewer rate increases have prompted a group of Placerville residents to seek the recall of two City Council members.

Vice Mayor Dave Machado and Councilman Mark Acuna said they were served with recall notices last Thursday.

The notices state that the councilmen "caused great financial and emotional hardship by raising water and sewer rates to unreasonable levels."

The council, following public hearings, voted unanimously in October to increase sewer rates by 88 percent and water rates by 43 percent. They said the debt service on $45 million in state-required improvements to the city's wastewater treatment plant and the need to upgrade an aging water distribution system left them no choice but to boost rates.

Machado was elected to his first term and Acuna to a second term in November 2008.

Acuna said he thinks the other three council members – Pierre Rivas, Patty Borrelli and Carl Hagen – were not targeted because their terms expire in November, the earliest a recall election likely could be held.

John Nerwinski, leader of the recall effort and a councilman in the 1990s, could not be reached for comment.

Although the rate increases appear to have precipitated the move, the notice of intent to circulate recall petitions also accuses the council members of allowing a conflict of interest to exist by having John Driscoll, a lawyer, serve as both city manager and city attorney.

It also says that they have failed to maintain streets and sidewalks to reasonable standards and have spent taxpayer money on "potential" new projects, rather than protecting existing infrastructure.

"It's very disheartening, especially in a small town," Acuna said.

He said he has championed efforts to help provide rate relief for low-income households.

The wastewater treatment plant improvements were critical, he said, noting that in 2006 the state Water Resources Control Board found the plant out of compliance and began levying fines.

Machado acknowledged that the rate increases are painful. But, he said, "If those who are pursuing the recall really dig into the facts and the background as I have ... they'll find there is not a lot of maneuvering room."

He argues that redevelopment offers the best hope for funding infrastructure improvements and providing rate relief.

City Clerk Susan Zito said recall proponents would have to collect the signatures of 25 percent of the city's 5,149 registered voters to qualify a measure for the ballot.

A 47-year-old woman driving a golf cart died when struck by a pickup Monday in Sutter County.

The woman, who died at the scene, was hit at the intersection of Del Monte Avenue and Highway 113 near the town of Robbins.

The California Highway Patrol said the golf cart driver, who was traveling east on Del Monte, failed to yield the intersection right-of-way to the pickup's driver. The pickup was northbound on Highway 113 at about 55 mph.

The pickup's driver, Ruben Ramirez, Jr., 23, of Winters saw the golf cart only a second or two before impact, authorities say. He then tried to avoid the collision but struck the cart in the northbound lane of the highway.

The woman, a resident of Robbins, has not been identified pending notification of family.

A CHP press release said the golf cart was not licensed for highway use. It was not equipped with seat belts.

It is unclear if the victim stopped at the stop sign before attempting to cross Highway 113. Anyone who may have observed the golf cart prior to the collision is asked to call the Yuba-Sutter CHP office at (530) 674-5141.

The Folsom Police Department has forwarded to the Sacramento County District Attorney the case of a man tied to a fatal encounter in the city's historic district last month.

John Sandler, 44, of Sacramento died in the early morning hours of Feb. 14 after an apparent fight and a hit-and-run collision outside the City Slickers Sports Bar and Grill, 97 Natoma St.

"At the end of next week,the entire investigation will be submitted to the district attorney" for review and consideration, police spokesman Jason Browning said Monday.

The DA's office will determine whether charges will be filed.

Police received a 911 call at 1:40 a.m. that morning of the encounter in which the caller said that a pedestrian had been hit by a truck in the sports bar parking lot.

The driver's identity was not disclosed, and Browning said his name would remain confidential unless or until criminal charges are filed.

The driver of the truck reportedly drove away from the area, and police found Sandler critically injured. Folsom Fire Department personnel declared him dead minutes later.

About 15 minutes after the 911 report, a woman called Folsom police and said her father-in-law had been assaulted outside the same restaurant.

Police responding to her home found a truck parked outside that matched the description of the the hit-and-run vehicle.

The woman's father-in-law was injured and required treatment at a local hospital, police said.

As Sacramento Regional Transit faces what may be its deepest bus and rail cuts ever later this month, it's clear even the least-ridden weekend buses are sacred to some.

The agency, faced with a $25 million budget deficit amid recession and state funding cuts, is expected to decide March 22 what it must do to bridge that gap.

During a five-hour hearing Monday night, rider after rider implored the RT board to understand the meaning of potential cuts – especially weekend service and Paratransit rides for disabled people.

Gus Marinello of Citrus Heights was among several speakers who told the board of one special reason to keep weekend buses running.

"We go to church on Sundays," Marinello said to applause and amens from the audience. "If we can't go to church, we are being denied our constitutional rights."

Lenore Presley of Sacramento, who is deaf and blind, attends California State University, Sacramento, at night, she said, communicating through sign language.

"I wouldn't be able to go to school," she said. "My family doesn't have a car."

RT staff officials expect to review their options over the next two weeks before drawing up a list of proposed cuts for board debate.

The cuts would go into effect June 20, and will be teamed with up to 300 agency layoffs, officials say.

Speakers at the Monday hearing, many of them disabled, described RT and Paratransit buses as equal parts liberty, freedom, inalienable right and lifestyle.

Without Paratransit, "I could become another unemployed statistic," stuck at home, said Sabrina Hocker, who is visually impaired.

Speakers – some tearful, some angry – suggest the agency reduce bus headways, cut staff salaries, and cut daytime routes rather than the evening and weekend buses that less well-off riders use.

While some spoke of taking buses to church, some said weekend and evening buses also simply provide access to shopping malls for relaxation or a way to get out to see families and friends.

Ironically, the bus cuts could harm car drivers as well, RT staff officials warned the board.

If the RT service is pared down too much, it could worsen the region's air quality projections, and cause federal officials to refuse to fund new road projects.

The agency's $25 million budget deficit could be reduced in the coming days to about $13 million, officials said, if Gov. Schwarzenegger signs a Democratic bill freeing up some state reserves for transit.

RT General Manager Mike Wiley said the governor legally has two weeks to decide.

It's a sweet, oily, peanut butter-ish substance capturing the Willy Wonka-ism that mixing sugar and fat is a recipe for success.

Only the UC Davis researchers who created Nutributter have a lofty goal: preventing childhood malnutrition across the world.

Each ketchup-packet-size dose of Nutributter is 4 teaspoons stuffed with 120 calories and all 40 essential vitamins and minerals.

The goal is to get children in developing nations to consume one packet a day, starting in infancy.

"Kids love it," said Steve Vosti, part of the UC Davis team that helped develop Nutributter. "And if we are successful in introducing it, we will have a relatively cheap way of keeping kids on their mental and physical growth paths."

The UC Davis team leads the International Lipid-based Nutrient Supplements (iLiNS) Project, an international collaboration that is currently testing Nutributter in three African countries. Last year, the project won a $16 million Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant.

The idea of ready-to-eat food packets originates from Plumpy'nut, a similar paste of oil, milk powder and sugar used to combat severe childhood malnutrition. Each packet has 500 calories, and children can gain 1 to 2 pounds a week by eating it twice daily. In 2004, Plumpy'nut was credited with saving some 30,000 lives in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Nutributter is different because it's not an emergency measure, the researchers said.

Plumpy'nut was designed as a sole food source for severely malnourished children, whereas Nutributter complements - rather than replaces - home-prepared food, said UC Davis nutrition professor Kathryn Dewey. Parents can mix the paste into the foods they feed their children, usually some kind of porridge. Ideally, it will prevent childhood malnutrition and ensure proper cognitive and physical development.

"Many households simply don't have access to highly nutritious foods," Dewey said. "Because infants don't need a lot of calories, we've designed a supplement that is low in calories but has all the essential nutrients."

The iLiNS team is conducting field trials in three African nations: Malawi, Ghana and Burkina Faso. They will enroll about 7,000 infants and pregnant and lactating women, who receive free Nutributter packets in exchange for participating in weekly checkups and surveys.

A 2004-06 Nutributter trial in Ghana reduced childhood anemia and growth stunting and doubled the number of children who could walk independently at age 1.

But Nutributter's positive health effects are just one component of making it a successful venture. The 10-cent packets should be self-sustaining, so that if they were sold in grocery stores, parents would choose to buy them, said Vosti, an economics professor.

"There are plenty of examples of things we know would work, but people simply aren't adopting them," he said. "We need to have a game plan for what can be done to make sure these supplements get into the mouths of youngsters who need them."

One way of doing this is to satiate palates around the world. The team says kids like and ask for the sweet paste, but creating versions using local flavors might make Nutributter more appealing. For example, they are working on a cinnamon-flavored version to be evaluated in Guatemala, and cumin and cardamom versions for Bangladesh, Dewey said.

Christina Hayes' heart aches each time she waits in the lobby of Sacramento's downtown jail to see her incarcerated son.

"It kills me to see my son behind bars," Hayes said. "You can't touch him. You can't hug him."

For Shayshay Cox, whose fiancé is locked up on robbery charges, the heartache is seeing pregnant young women in the waiting room or young mothers with strollers or toddlers in their arms.

"I don't know how they do it," Cox said.

For security officer Matt Carpenter, it pains him to see children grow up between visits.

"The hardest part of the job is to see children be exposed to ... something that most kids shouldn't see," said Carpenter, who works the front desk in the lobby.

Hundreds of people pass each day through the Sacramento County Main Jail waiting area with its high ceilings, dim lighting and tan walls. The visitors wait, the guards watch, and tensions and emotions roil in this no-man's land between a world of regulations and freedom.

The only lives that seem unaffected are the colorful African cichlids swimming serenely inside a brightly lit fish tank that separates the waiting area from the secured zone.

"It's nerve-wrecking coming here," said Hayes, a 38-year-old Citrus Heights resident. She has become familiar with visitation protocols since starting faithful visits last April, when her son was arrested for being involved in a fight, she said.

Signs posted on the doors and the bullet-resistant glass at the front desk explain the rules. To make an appointment to see an inmate, visitors have to show identification. Sometimes they wait minutes, sometimes hours, and sometimes they're told to come back a different day. Inmates are allowed only two social visits a week. The guards, Hayes said, aren't too pleased if you ask questions for which the signs have answers.

Hayes is like an unofficial docent, guiding first-time visitors. One recent evening, she stood by the desk where people filled out visitation forms when a woman with a cane and a toddler in a stroller walked in, looking lost.

A guard at the entrance's metal detector directed the woman, but she looked perplexed, so Hayes stepped in.

Hayes showed the woman a roster of inmates and how to use the information to fill out a form. She told her to wait in line beside the fish tank to get an appointment from the guards in the booth.

Security officer Jerry Dyer said friendships sometimes are formed through such encounters.

"There's a bit of camaraderie that goes on here," Dyer said.

Near the exit doors, sitting on one of the few seats in the lobby, Yadira Olea had an hour to wait before she could see her father.

More than two months ago, police pulled Olea's father over in Stockton at a stop sign and found out he was in the country illegally, Olea said.

Since then, the 22-year-old Stockton resident has driven 50 miles to the jail twice a week, gone through the metal detectors, filled out the visitation forms and waited.

The hardest part, she said, is that she has to tell her father everything is going to be OK.

"You have to put on your best face," Olea said.

As a recent evening wore on, the crowds ebbed and flowed. Occasionally, a child's cry or a guard's voice over the speaker interrupted the drone of visitors talking to each other in low voices.

Outside the jail, Cox, the 23-year-old Bay Area resident waiting to see her fiancé, said she tries to visit him twice a week.

Each time she wonders: "What is the visit going to be like? Am I going to be strong and not cry? Am I going to be strong and not flip out at the guards?"

She said the guards are rude, and she feels judged.

There's no judging, Carpenter said.

"It may feel that way because the officers have some time constraint as to how much time they can spend with each visitor," he said.

Some visitors get frustrated by the many rules: no talking on cell phones; all belongings have to be placed in lockers; people accompanying visitors cannot loiter in the lobby.

Carpenter's partner, security officer Tom Harrison, explained that the rules are meant to protect everyone.

Dyer said the jail – by its very nature – can be intimidating. And emotions run high.

"A lot of times this is the end of the line for a lot of relationships," Carpenter said. "A lot of times people are in shock. They can't believe a family member is in here."

Christine Race, 45, a Carmichael resident whose son is awaiting trial on charges she did not want to divulge, said it depends on who is on duty.

She has learned to time her visits to coincide with the shifts of officers she likes – Dyer, Carpenter and Harrison.

"They are very helpful," Race said. They don't "make you feel degraded to see your family."

Sacramento-area schools did fairly well Monday when the preliminary list of the state's lowest-performing schools was released.

Three schools made the roster, a big improvement over places such as San Joaquin County with nine, San Francisco County with eight and Los Angeles with 35 on the list.

"That's not a bad showing for this region," said David Gordon, superintendent of Sacramento County schools.

The California Department of Education released the list of 188 schools in the bottom 5 percent of the state's persistently lowest-performing schools, based on how students have scored on standardized tests.

The listed schools are under the gun to improve if they want a share of $415 million in federal School Improvement Grants the state expects to receive over three years.

The area schools included: Oak Ridge Elementary in Oak Park, Sacramento City Unified; Natomas High School, Natomas Unified; and Woodland High School, Woodland Joint Unified in Yolo County.

Underperforming schools will be eligible for between $50,000 and $2 million in federal money each year for three years.

Natomas Unified officials put a positive spin on the news Monday morning, calling the opportunity for additional funding a "gift."

"I actually see it as a positive," said Howard Kornblum, interim assistant superintendent. "Here is an opportunity to improve our instructional materials and real money to support our work."

But Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond had a different take: "It's not a list you want to have a school recognized on. We're obviously disappointed about that. But looking at the numbers and the data, it's not a surprise."

API scores play a role

One of the criteria for being selected was a school's Academic Performance Index score, based on standardized testing. The API tells a school where its performance lies on a scale from 200 to 1,000; California's goal is to have all schools score at least 800.

Raymond said that Oak Ridge Elementary has an API score of 649 – an increase from 629 in 2007. The school has increased its test scores over the last two years, but they are still in need of improvement, he said.

Natomas High has an API of 620.

The state school board will vote Thursday on whether to apply for a waiver from the federal government that allows it to change how it decides which schools remain on the list, said Rachel Perry of the California Department of Education.

Currently, the list includes two categories of schools: the bottom 5 percent of the state's Title I or low-income schools, and the bottom 5 percent of secondary schools that would qualify for Title I dollars, but haven't applied.

Oak Ridge is a Title I school, so it will remain on the list. Natomas and Woodland high schools qualify for Title I but haven't applied.

Because only 5 percent in either category can qualify to make the list, some low performing Title I schools were left off.

That's prompted the state Education Department to consider seeking permission to replace some middle and high schools with lower performing schools.

Schools on the list will have to take one of four routes to be eligible for federal funds:

• They can replace the principal and at least 50 percent of the staff.

• They can convert the school to a charter.

• They can close the school and enroll the students at higher-achieving schools in their districts.

• They can transform the school by changing the way students are taught, allowing more flexibility in its operation and adding hours to the school day, among other things.

Listed schools that don't want to participate may be forced to make changes by the state, officials said. But those reforms aren't required now, said Deborah Sigman, a deputy superintendent of state schools.

But it may just be a matter of time. The state passed laws requiring reforms but hasn't activated them yet, Sigman said.

Districts want the money

Districts will have until June 1 to turn in an application outlining how they would reform schools on the list. They won't know how much money to expect until July. Schools must begin their transformations at the beginning of the next school year – August for most schools.

The reforms are expected to make the state application for the second round of Race to the Top funds more attractive. Districts on the list could be eligible for a piece of that funding as well.

Last week state officials learned California is out of the running for the first round of Race to the Top money, but the reasons won't be revealed until April.

Both Natomas Unified and Sacramento City Unified officials said they intend to apply for school improvement money available for schools making Monday's list.

Natomas officials say they are leaning toward a model that keeps staff, but changes the way students are taught and gives the principal more flexibility.

"By deciding to attend Natomas there is a variety of possibilities and fantastic teachers who love their jobs," parent Robynne Rose-Haymer said. "They just need support to get on track."

Rose-Haymer said the influx of charter schools in the area drew away high performing students and hurt the high school's overall scores.

Kornblum said the district won't turn Natomas High into a charter. "It's a fiscal issue for us. The more kids we lose to charters, the more it hurts us."

He said the district will put together a committee of staff, union and parent representatives to work on a reform plan.

"We will think big," Kornblum said. "We will go for the Cadillac with spinners."

Sacramento City Unified officials say they don't intend to close the school or turn it over to a charter.

"I don't think closing the school and busing these kids out of the neighborhood and the community is a good option for the community or those kids," Raymond said.

Both district leaders said they expect the unions will be willing to make concessions to make these reforms work.

"I have every expectation that our unions will do what's right for the kids," Raymond said. "I think they have to. The community has said enough is enough. They want to see changes."

Raymond said union leadership already has indicated it will be more flexible. "But talk doesn't cook rice," he said.

A 3-year-old boy was hit and injured by a car Monday evening in West Sacramento, and the man suspected of driving the vehicle has turned himself in after initially fleeing.

Robert Miguel Mijangos, 52, surrendered to West Sacramento police later Monday night. He was booked into Yolo County Jail on suspicion of felony hit-and-run.

Mijangos is suspected of hitting the child with his car shortly before 6 p.m. at Anna Street and Bryte Avenue. The boy ran into the roadway in front of a white, early 1990s Honda Accord that was traveling about 25 mph.

The driver of the vehicle got out of the Honda and asked about the little boy's condition. However, instead of waiting for authorities to arrive, the man got into his car, backed up and drove away.

The boy, who was not identified, was taken to the UC Davis Medical Center for evaluation and treatment of a minor head injury.

An Oregon girl whose truck-driver father accidentally ran her over with his big rig has won $24.3 million in damages from the Portland company that a Sacramento judge found legally responsible for her injuries.

The personal-injury award handed down by a Superior Court jury last Friday to Diana Yuleidy Loza-Jimenez is the largest in Sacramento County history, according to the local bar association.

In a court-trial decision returned Dec. 14, Judge David W. Abbott said the firm that hired Simon Loza Mejia, Freeway Transport Inc., was liable for the girl's injuries.

"Defendant was listed on the shipper's bill of lading as the carrier," Abbott wrote. "Defendant insured the load. Defendant guaranteed delivery of the load."

Six years ago, Loza-Jimenez, now 14, joined her father, mother and other family members on a Thanksgiving long-haul trip from their home in Hermiston, Ore., to Bakersfield, where they visited relatives and picked up a load of produce to take back to Oregon.

On their way home, they stopped Nov. 27, 2004, for a break near Mount Shasta. When Loza Mejia got back inside the truck and pulled away, his daughter was still outside and got caught under the truck's rear wheels.

The girl suffered severe injuries to her entire lower body that will require an untold number of future surgeries, according to evidence presented in the lawsuit. Along with the prospect of hip replacement and other procedures, the injuries also will "affect her private functions" for the rest of her life, plaintiff's lawyer Robert A. Buccola said.

Before the damages phase of the trial, the judge ruled from the bench to exclude the jury from knowing it was the girl's father who accidentally drove over her. The plaintiff's lawyers argued it would have unduly prejudiced the panel.

Buccola, a veteran Sacramento trial lawyer who in 1998 won a $9.3 million award for a client that stood until last Friday as the local personal injury record, said Monday the father-daughter relationship was "legally irrelevant."

"It was no different than if anybody else, a complete stranger, had been injured," Buccola said. "That was the correct legal ruling."

Defense attorney Gary C. Ottoson of Los Angeles said he did not know how or if the knowledge that Loza Mejia was Loza-Jimenez's father would have affected the jury.

"I have to believe it would have made some difference," Ottoson said.

Once the judge made his liability decision nearly three months ago, the case went to a jury to decide damages. On Friday, the 10-woman, two-man panel, following a 13-day trial, came back with its award. The money broke down to $2.2 million for the girl's past medical expenses, including $1.6 million in costs incurred at Shriner's Children's Hospital, plus $2.1 million for future economic damages, $8 million for past pain and mental suffering and $12 million for such future noneconomic losses.

"We were thrilled to see that the jury appreciated the full magnitude of Diana's injuries," Buccola said. "She faces at least a dozen future surgeries and a life of serious disrepair. She's going to be going through the worst ahead of her."

Ottoson's defense team argued that Freeway Transport wasn't responsible in the case because the company only brokered her father's truck deal to haul the produce.

They claimed the defendant firm was not the actual long-haul carrier, even though they conceded that the Portland produce company that contracted for Loza Mejia's Bakersfield pickup – United Salad – is owned and operated by the same people who run Freeway Transport.

In a pre-trial brief filed last year, the defense lawyers said Loza-Jimenez was not a member of the general public eligible for protection under interstate transport regulations because her father took her along for the trip without Freeway Transport's knowledge.

"Loza and his wife were responsible for the well-being of their daughter and owed a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect, control and supervise her," the defense papers said. "This sad and unfortunate accident simply did not arise out of any duty owed by Freeway Transport."

Ottoson said Monday he asked the jury to limit the award to Loza-Jimenez to "something around $8 million."

"I rather expected they'd come in probably above that, but not a whole lot – maybe in the $12 million, $14-15 million range," Ottoson said in an interview Monday.

"It was a very bad injury. It's a sad story for the girl," Ottoson said.

Buccola said he filed the case in Sacramento because Freeway Transport listed the capital as a licensed place of business. He said the girl's father was devastated by the accident. He now works as a mechanic on a dairy farm in Oregon, according to Buccola.

"The idea that a horrific injury like this occurs, that is otherwise preventable, and it happens to your own daughter – it's unimaginable," Buccola said.

Attorneys for both sides are negotiating a final disposition, but Ottoson said Freeway Transport is not planning to appeal the outcome.

William F. Geach, a retired executive who was a volunteer docent at the state Capitol for 20 years, died March 2 of complications related to cancer. He was 83.

Besides narrating building tours, Mr. Geach described artifacts and answered questions from visitors to restored historic offices at the Capitol. He dressed in period costumes while participating in dramatizations and re- enactments of major events, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He also portrayed Gov. Henry Gage, who led the state from 1899 to 1903.

"He was not one to do something like acting in public," said his wife, Mary, a volunteer docent who played Mrs. Gage. "But he learned very quickly."

Mr. Geach shed his natural reserve with tour groups, volunteer Leslie Cooper said. He enjoyed escorting visitors to special areas, including the Capitol dome and the Assembly and Senate floors.

"Bill just exuded a love for the Capitol," said Cooper, vice president of the California State Capitol Museum Volunteer Association. "As he talked, people realized just what a wonderful place it is."

Mr. Geach also was an unofficial member of Beta Sigma Phi, an international service sorority his wife joined more than 50 years ago. He attended conferences and fundraising events for cystic fibrosis and other charities. The couple also volunteered as Music Circus ushers at Monday evening performances for almost 50 years.

He was born in 1926 and reared in Grass Valley. He served in the Navy and attended Sacramento State.

He worked for the state Department of Bridges and Highways and for Union Pacific railroad before joining Blue Anchor, a farmers cooperative, for almost 40 years. He oversaw fruit shipping as traffic manager and rose to vice president before retiring in 1991.

Mr. Geach spent many spare hours gardening at his Sacramento home, where he specialized in raising cymbidium orchids. He planted azaleas and primroses on grave sites he and his wife "adopted" and tended at the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery.

The couple also volunteered for several years as docents at the Stanford Mansion. His wife, a retired history teacher, created their costumes for the mansion and the Capitol.

"He became so involved because he went with me to all these events," said his wife of 59 years. "We were joined at the hip."

As Sacramento Regional Transit faces what may be its deepest bus and rail cuts ever later this month, it's clear even the least-ridden weekend buses are sacred to some.

The agency, faced with a $25 million budget deficit amid recession and state funding cuts, is expected to decide March 22 what it must do to bridge that gap.

During a five-hour hearing Monday night, rider after rider implored the RT board to understand the meaning of potential cuts - especially weekend service and Paratransit rides for disabled people.

Gus Marinello of Citrus Heights was among several speakers who told the board of one special reason to keep weekend buses running.

"We go to church on Sundays," Marinello said to applause and amens from the audience. "If we can't go to church, we are being denied out constitutional rights."

Lenore Presley of Sacramento, who is deaf and blind, attends California State University, Sacramento, at night, she said, communicating through sign language.

"I wouldn't be able to go to school," she said. "My family doesn't have a car."

RT staff officials expect to review their options over the next two weeks before drawing up a list of proposed cuts for board debate.

The cuts would go into effect June 20, and will be teamed with up to 300 agency layoffs, officials say.